In what format do i capture from Tv ?

[Dj-DuDu]

Hello , I have HTPC which has Tv Card ( Life View 3000 ) now i try alot of applications and finaly when i found one that preety good playing the Live tv i dont know the record method ,

Well the default option there was mjpeg codec , now i installed both divx and Xvid codec Divx 6.4 and i change there the option of the record to xvid but i didant change any option in the xvid menu so its record the default settings and the record look nice now any tips of capturing video signals from tv to an video file will be appreciate ,

Do i choose the AVI format or the mpeg 2 format and if its the avi what codec to choose and do i need to change any settings for capturing with good quality and normal hd space ,

any way , Any thing that could help will be great c ya !

[jmkeuning]

It depends on what you are going to do with the files. If you want to author the files to DVD, you may want to record to mpeg since this is the format for DVDs.

I record to mpeg and then edit with MPEG-VCR and then burn to DVD. I think the end product looks great!

As for your AVI codec, I recommed xvid, but only because that's the one that I use with AutoGK and it works!

[edDV]

Your ability to encode while capturing is limited by your CPU power. Many people use capture cards with hardware encoders to improve video quality and reduce CPU loading.

HTPC implies unattended capture. Better to use a hardware encoder for reliability.

e.g. Hauppage PVR series which encodes to DVD ready MPeg2.

[FulciLives]

With that card I would go with PICVideo MJPEG or HuffyUV for your capture codec. Then after you capture you can convert to MPEG-2 DVD spec or whatever you want as the end result.

You should be able to use VirtualVCR or iuVCR or TheFlyDS for your capture software.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[INFRATOM]

(sorry for jumping in) Does any of these capture programs can record in certain file size, for example I let the recording go on for 2 hours straight and it would make files not bigger than 1gig so for example it makes 8 files for 2 hours capture.

[Dj-DuDu]

Well , Thanks for the help Dudes !

Now i am using the Fly 2000TV Capture application , With the FlyTV Prime ak FlyVideo 3000 capture card , Now i get alot of errors when i press the record button (Errors in the ballon Tips see the links for image ) , but when i lower the resulution some time its record some time no , Also its stop recording when i choose the divx or the mjpeg codec too it errors me this , Saying cannot reneder video stream to capture pin ,
See Image:


And when i choose the xvid codec with the pcm sound compreesion method 192Kbps its give me that error :



well this is realy sucks i just want to record some tv movies and shows to watch them later the file size is not realy matter cause i can copmress it later maby with autoGk or VirtualDub , but nothing realy help ,

Also when i record the playback quality gets realy ugly then before and the movement goes bit slower on screen i guess this is becuase my Capture card dont have hardware encoder built in ?


Any way i am realy desperate and could use bit more help so thanks alot for any other help guys

[steveryan]

Don't capture using the XVID codec, as suggested earlier try the Huffy codec and VirtualVCR.

[Dj-DuDu]

Well Thanks alot for that tip , Now i installed the Huffy Codec and record through Fly 2000 Tv
default codec settings , just change in the fly settings record resulution to 592x320 and it was great resulution and magnificent look and sound only one problem the
3 min record file took 573MB of space so 95 minute is gonna take about 18GB of space can i compress it later with auto gk or with virtualDub mod to a normal size of 1.4 gb for example ?


and thanks alot for that usefull help !

[steveryan]

one problem the 3 min record file took 573MB of space so 95 minute is gonna take about 18GB of space can i compress it later with auto gk or with virtualDub mod to a normal size of 1.4 gb for example ?


and thanks alot for that usefull help !

Yes.

[Dj-DuDu]

Well thanks alot my friend its exactly the codec i was looking for just didant know there is one !

Peace my friend and thanks for the help .

8)

[FulciLives]

After you capture you can then use autoGK to compress it to a smaller sized DivX or XviD file but I would suggest that you capture at either 720x480 if your source is NTSC or 720x576 if your source is PAL or I suppose you could try 640x480 if you do intend to later convert to DivX/XviD.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[Dj-DuDu]

Well Thanks alot my friend i will change the resulution and try it , But does the file size could go larger if i will change it ?

Cause as i wrote in 592x320 and about 95 min took me about 18Gb of space , so is this gonna change if i will use the resulution u suggested ?

[FulciLives]

Yes it will give you a bigger file.

If you want excellent quality but smaller file size I suggest you try PICVideo MJPEG on the 19 quality setting (20 is the highest quality setting but 19 looks very nearly identical in quality but creates a much smaller file size). The only problem is that PICVideo MJPEG is not free whereas HuffyUV is free but HuffyUV will create larger file sizes.

How did you come up with a resolution of 592x320 because frankly I can't see how that resolution gives you a proper aspect ratio!

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[Dj-DuDu]

Well again thanks for the help !

Now i will try that codec you suggested and will se how it will work with my caputre application
(fly 2000 tv) , Now about the resulution tell you the truth in video editing , compressing , etc
I am a beginner , Althoug i have Pc Technician Diploma and i work in few Computer networks in israel , So what im trying to say is that i have some Rip DvD's that hmmmm Lets say friend let me watch them , Now those dvd's come with their own resulution so i like the size of screen so i just check the details of some of the movies with Gspot and use it for my own in some movies and it looks nice alot so figure i can used it , But i did try the resulution you suggested and it was Pal Full screen al over my Tv nice alot so thanks for that ,

Now just another question when i compress the file with gspot i need to do ctrl + f9 --> aspect
chckebox Override Input Ar and choose original if want to keep the original am i right ?

Any way thanks for the useful tips 8)

[FulciLives]

Now just another question when i compress the file with gspot i need to do ctrl + f9 --> aspect
chckebox Override Input Ar and choose original if want to keep the original am i right ?

Any way thanks for the useful tips 8)

I assume you are talking about autoGK here and not GSpot.

That setting should not be touched. I'm really not sure why it is there other than to maybe "force" a specific AR should autoGK goof up first time around. That's not likely to happen though.

Personally ... I use the option that forces autoGK to make the width 640 as that is generally considered the MAX with for MPEG-4 (i.e., XivD and DivX) and then if the video is full screen autoGK will make the height 480 as 640x480 is a proper Full Screen ratio. If the video is widescreen and has black above and below then the width will stay 640 but the black gets cut away. For instance a movie with a 1.85:1 aspect ratio will become 640x352 when the black is cut away ... a movie with a 2.35:1 aspect ratio will become 640x272 when the black is cut away etc.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[Dj-DuDu]

Wazzzzup , Well you right i did mean AutoGk , Now i ask that because the i captute the football game for example 2 days ago Barcelona Vs Zaragosa , Now i capture it from cable Tv and i used the resulution you suggested for pal 720x576 and thats capture all screen now when i compress it with autogk the resulution has changed to 528x400 automatic setting , Thats the first half now the second half maybe 1Giga bigger has been changed to 512x384 and thats not match i wanted the both halfs will be the same so i assumed that i need to override aspect ration in auto gk so it will be the same ,

Also should i need to use the "Override Aspect Ratio" in autoGk to keep the same resulution if i want it to be the same both parts ?

Now just another question why do i capture it in 720x576 or 640x480 as you suggested if the final resualt gonna be lower resulution anyway ?

And you said that 640 is the MAX width for Mpeg 4 so why shouldent i capture in the begining with that Resulution 640x480 and the file size will be lower and the settings will stay the same ?

And again Thanks Alot DuDe !

[FulciLives]

Wazzzzup , Well you right i did mean AutoGk , Now i ask that because the i captute the football game for example 2 days ago Barcelona Vs Zaragosa , Now i capture it from cable Tv and i used the resulution you suggested for pal 720x576 and thats capture all screen now when i compress it with autogk the resulution has changed to 528x400 automatic setting , Thats the first half now the second half maybe 1Giga bigger has been changed to 512x384 and thats not match i wanted the both halfs will be the same so i assumed that i need to override aspect ration in auto gk so it will be the same ,

Also should i need to use the "Override Aspect Ratio" in autoGk to keep the same resulution if i want it to be the same both parts ?

Now just another question why do i capture it in 720x576 or 640x480 as you suggested if the final resualt gonna be lower resulution anyway ?

And you said that 640 is the MAX width for Mpeg 4 so why shouldent i capture in the begining with that Resulution 640x480 and the file size will be lower and the settings will stay the same ?

And again Thanks Alot DuDe !

When you capture PAL you should capture 720x576 ... that's just the way it is.

With autoGK in auto mode it tries to find the optimal resolution for the file size you select. If you go into ADVANCED SETTINGS there is an option for FIXED WIDTH and if you set that to 640 then you will get a resolution of 640x480 or if you set it to 512 then you get a resolution of 512x384 and so forth. So when you have two files like that and watch to match the resolution then set the FIXED WIDTH to the same. You do have to make sure you give it enough bitrate (this is controlled by the file size). This is trail and error to an extent but autoGK performs a calculation as to the COMPRESSION PERCENTAGE and generally speaking you want at least 75% or highter. I shoot for 90% or higher myself.

So if the calc stage finished and you get a value less than 75% then stop it and start over again but increase the file size. If you do that don't forget to delete the files autoGK had already started to make so you start "fresh".

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[Dj-DuDu]

Well i get it all almost , Except the part when you says that if i choose the fixed width i have to give it anough bitrate , i guess this is dumb question but if i dont ask i will not understand , So i excactly do i give it enough bitrate what is that mean , and how do i do it cause i look in the autogk hidden options( ctrl + f9) and didant saw anything that could help me about that , So i must annoy you again with that question , And it will be great if you could help me with that also !

Thanks for everything !

[steveryan]

I usually work on a figure of 10MB per minute of video using the Xvid codec and 128 kbps MP3audio, so if I have a file that lasts for 28 minutes that would be 280MB. Using AutoGK you need use the custom size (MB) feature which is found in step 3 of the interface. So for your football match the first half will be about 46 minutes (45 +1 stoppage time) and the second half 50 minutes (45+5 stoppage time).

1st half 46 mins = 460MB
2nd half 50 mins = 500MB

[FulciLives]

The file size determines the bitrate. The bigger the file size the higher the bitrate and therefore the better the image quality will be.

This is hit or miss and I don't know how well steveryan's suggestions are but at least it gives you an idea.

I do know that when you start autoGK that it will report a compressibility number as a percentage and you want 75% or higher ... as for myself I am not happy unless it is around 90%.

So to get that percentage figure you have to let autoGK start and do the calc test and like I said if you find the number to be "too low" for you then you have to stop the process and start over again but increase the file size the 2nd time.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[Dj-DuDu]

Well i did change the resulution for the second half to 528x400 (like the first half) and start autoGk and wait until the compressability number show up and it was 61% well i let him run cause i want both files to be 700MB each and the resualt was nice actully the bitrate was the same like the first try that has resulution of 512x384 , anyway i didant get exactly what does the compressabilty do (although i know what compress mean) but if i choose file size to be 700MB what do i care about the compressabilty ?

Any way i did try the other codec you suggested PicVideo Mjpeg and that is HOT dude ,
I capture 1Min of video with The PicVideo and it was 156MB , Compare to the Huffy Same settings 1Min of video which get file size of 435MB , So that is realy improvment ,Also i compress them both with auto gk to custom size of 15MB and before and after compression the PicVideo got out little bit better look so lets say this is another progress , So thanks for that also , And for everyone that help !

[jagabo]

if i choose file size to be 700MB what do i care about the compressabilty ?

It gives you some idea what the output quality will be.

Any way i did try the other codec you suggested PicVideo Mjpeg and that is HOT dude , I capture 1Min of video with The PicVideo and it was 156MB , Compare to the Huffy Same settings 1Min of video which get file size of 435M

Yes, but HuffYUV is lossless (assuming a YUY2 source), MJPEG is not. MJPEG generates macroblocks and DCT ringing, HuffYUV does not. It's up to you to decide whether those quality losses are acceptable.